JPH11327462A - Portable information terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a miniaturized electronic equipment to display a lot of information so as to be easy to see. SOLUTION: An information processing section 110 is provided with a basic function as PDA(personal digital assistant), and generates picture information in accordance with processing contents to be performed. A display section 120 displays picture information generated by the information processing section 110 on a liquid crystal display(LCD) panel. And a picture displayed on the LCD panel is expanded by an optical system, and a virtual image is generated. The virtual image can be visualized by viewing it from an eyepiece section 126.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable information terminal device, and more particularly to a portable information terminal device for displaying an image on a small display screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various information devices have been miniaturized with the progress of computerization in society, and have become so small that individuals can carry them. And PDA (Personal Digital Assistan)
In the portable information terminal device referred to as t), miniaturization of a product is particularly promoted in order to improve portability. PD
Since A does not necessarily require a keyboard unlike a personal computer, it can be made very small. In such a miniaturized electronic device, a liquid crystal display panel is generally used as a display unit for displaying a processing result of image information, and the liquid crystal display panel becomes smaller with the miniaturization of the terminal. Things are used.

[0003]

However, as a result of the miniaturization of the display unit of the PDA, it has become impossible to display a large amount of information at a time. Therefore, the user using the PDA has to refer to the target information little by little while scrolling the sliced image or the like, which is very inconvenient.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable information terminal device capable of displaying a large amount of information in a small-sized electronic device in an easily viewable manner.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an information processing unit for generating image information according to the contents of information processing is provided in a miniaturized portable information terminal device, An image display unit that displays an image based on the image information generated by the information processing unit, and a display unit that includes an optical unit that generates a virtual image by enlarging the image displayed on the image display unit, A portable information terminal device is provided.

According to this portable information terminal device, the image information generated by the information processing section is displayed on the image display section. The displayed image is enlarged by the optical unit, and a virtual image is generated. By visually recognizing the virtual image, the user can see an image larger than the image generated by the image display unit.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a portable information terminal device of the present invention. The portable information terminal device (P
The DA) 100 is divided into an information processing unit 110 and a display unit 120.

The information processing section 110 has basic functions as a PDA (communication section, voice processing section, operation section, control section, storage section, etc.). By controlling these functions by the control unit, a telephone function, a mail function, a personal computer function, a personal computer communication function, a personal information management function, and the like are realized. further,
The information processing unit 110 includes an operation unit 111,
By operating the operation unit 111, various functions can be selected. The information processing section 110 generates image information according to the content of the processing to be executed.

The display unit 120 displays the image information generated by the information processing unit 110 on a liquid crystal display panel (LCD: Liquid Cryst).
al Display). Then, the image displayed on the LCD is enlarged by an optical system to generate a virtual image. The virtual image can be visually recognized by looking through the eyepiece 126.

The display unit 120 is monocular and is connected to the information processing unit 110 by a foldable joint. When not in use, the display unit 120
Is folded. Then, when the display unit 120 is used,
Spread out. When the display unit 120 is expanded, an eyepiece unit 126 appears. The display unit 120 has an SVGA (Super Video Graphics Arra) of 600 dots in the vertical direction × 800 dots in the horizontal direction.
y) Since the standard is satisfied, the virtual image generated in the display unit 120 is displayed with high resolution. Thus, when looking into the eyepiece section 126, the user can enjoy the screen with a large sensation. Then, if this PDA 100 is mounted on the head, it becomes a head-mounted PDA.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which the PDA device of the present invention is mounted on the head. In this figure, PDA1 is
It is mounted so that you can see the 00 screen. PDA10 in the figure
Although the structure for mounting 0 is omitted, by fixing the display unit to a frame having a structure like glasses, the display unit can be mounted like wearing glasses.

The information processing unit 110 has an image rotation function. When an image rotation command is issued from the operation unit, the image processing unit 110 generates image data rotated 180 degrees so that the image to be displayed is upside down. I do. Therefore, even if the direction of the display unit 120 is changed, a correct image can be viewed by turning the image upside down. Thus, when worn on the head, it can be seen by either the left or right eye.

By using such a PDA 100, various images can be viewed on a large screen. For example, the display unit 12
When the user operates the operation unit 111 to obtain the newspaper article data from the personal computer communication or the like by opening 0, newspaper information and the like can be visually recognized on the large screen from the eyepiece unit 126.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the display unit. The display unit 120 is provided with a backlight 121,
D122 is illuminated from above. With this, LCD
The image displayed at 122 is sent to another optical system.

Below the LCD 122, a half mirror 1 is provided.
23 are provided. The half mirror 123 is an LCD
The light emitted from the light source 122 is arranged to be reflected forward of the user's line of sight. A concave half mirror 124 is provided on the optical path of the light reflected from the half mirror 123. Further, the concave half mirror 124 is viewed from the user.
Is provided with a liquid crystal shutter 125. The liquid crystal shutter 125 can freely change the transmission amount of light entering from the outside under the control of the information processing unit 110.

The LCD 122 of such a display unit 120
When the image sent from the information processing unit 110 is displayed, the image is reflected by the half mirror 123 toward the front of the user. The image reflected by the half mirror 123 is reflected by the concave half mirror 124 and returned to the half mirror 123 again. Concave half mirror 1
The image returned from 24 passes through the half mirror 123 and forms an image on the retina of the user's eye 201.

At this time, what the user sees is a virtual image displayed on a virtual screen 202 displayed in front of the user. The size of the screen 202 viewed by the eye 201 is felt by the ratio of the viewing angle when the image reflected by the concave half mirror 124 is incident on the eye 201 to the total viewing angle viewed by the eye 201. In the present embodiment, since the viewing angle is set to 30 degrees, when converted to a virtual image distance of 2 m, a 52-inch large screen is viewed.

Further, by adopting the concave half mirror 124, an enlarged virtual image of the image of the LCD 122 can be obtained at the same time.
You can also see the outside world that can be seen with ordinary eyes. Thus, the PDA 100 can be used safely while walking. In addition, the amount of light from the outside can be freely adjusted by a liquid crystal shutter 125 provided between the outside and the concave half mirror 124.

In this embodiment, the display unit 120 is a single eye, but the display unit 120 may be a compound eye and be like glasses. Further, the backlight 121 may have a removable structure. As a result, external light can be used as needed. As a result, power consumption can be reduced.

Next, the configuration of the information processing section 110 will be described in detail. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the information processing unit. The information processing unit 110 is mainly configured with a control unit 112. The control unit 112 controls the PD in accordance with an input signal from a jog dial (rotating the dial changes the function to be selected and pressing the dial to determine the selection) or an operation unit 111 including operation keys.
The entire A100 is controlled. The control unit 112 has a ROM (R
A storage unit 113 including an ead only memory (RAM) and a random access memory (RAM) is attached. This storage unit 113
Stores a control program in which the contents of processing performed by the control unit 112 are described, various data input by a user, and the like.

The communication processing unit 115 is connected to an antenna 114, and performs information communication by radio waves in accordance with a command from the control unit 112. The audio processing unit 116 generates an audio signal based on a command from the control unit 112 and outputs the audio signal to the speaker 117, and sends the audio signal captured by the microphone 118 to the control unit 112. The display processing unit 119 generates image information based on an image display command from the control unit 112, and outputs the image information to the display unit 120.

In such a PDA 100, when the user operates the operation unit 111 to instruct the line connection, the control unit 112 controls the computer of the personal computer communication company (hereinafter, referred to as "host computer") via the communication processing unit 115. Access. If the access is successful, the information on the menu screen is returned from the host computer.

When the user operates the operation unit 111 to select necessary information, the selected content is transmitted to the communication processing unit 1.
15 to the host computer. Then
Data corresponding to the selected content is returned from the host computer. The returned data is received by the communication processing unit 115 and passed to the control unit 112.

The control section 112 processes the received data based on the control program stored in the storage section 113 and sends it to the display processing section 119. The display processing unit 119 converts the received data into image information and causes the display unit 120 to display it. The information displayed on the display unit 120 is a high resolution of SVGA.

When the PDA 100 of the present invention is used as a telephone function, when there is an incoming call at the antenna 114,
The received signal is amplified and frequency-converted by the communication processing unit 115 and transmitted to the control unit 112. The control unit 112 processes the received signal and outputs a calling signal to the voice processing unit 116. The sound processor 116 sounds a ringing tone from the speaker 117 based on the received signal. When the user operates the operation unit 111, a normal conversation is started.

As described above, the PDA according to the present invention
Then, a virtual image in which the display screen of the LCD 122 is enlarged is generated, and the virtual image is shown to the user, so that the user can view the image on the large screen while using a small PDA.

Also, the PDA of the present invention has a display unit that can be folded and folded with a single eye, and has an image rotation function so that it can be viewed by either the right or left eye. be able to.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the virtual image generated by enlarging the image displayed on the screen display unit is displayed to the user, so that the user can use a small portable information terminal device. You can see a large screen image while using it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a portable information terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which the PDA device of the present invention is mounted on a head.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a display unit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of an information processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: portable information terminal (PDA), 110: information processing unit, 111: operation unit, 120: display unit, 126: eyepiece unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] An information processing unit that generates image information according to the content of information processing, and an image that displays an image based on the image information generated by the information processing unit. A portable information terminal device comprising: a display unit; and a display unit including an optical unit that generates a virtual image by enlarging an image displayed on the image display unit. 2. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is fixed to a spectacle-shaped frame. 3. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is connected to the information processing unit by a foldable joint. 4. The portable information terminal according to claim 1, wherein the information processing unit, upon receiving an image rotation command, generates image data rotated so that an image to be displayed is upside down. apparatus. 5. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit superimposes light captured from the outside on the virtual image light.